Molecular imaging systems are known in the art and are commonly used to capture various types or modes of images from an object or specimen being analyzed. The objects or specimens that are imaged may comprise any of a wide range of compositions and objects, as is well-known. Primarily, such imaging systems are configured to detect extremely low levels of light emitted by the specimen or object under study. The light emitted by the object or specimen may be generated by a bio-luminescence process, a fluorescence process, or by a combination thereof. Such imaging systems may also be capable of capturing reflected light images, in which light reflected by the object is captured by the imaging system camera. Such a reflected light image is often combined with one or more emitted light images to form a single, composite image. Such a composite image allows a user to more easily correlate features and attributes of the emitted light image(s) with physical locations on the specimen or other characteristics that are contained in the reflected light image.
As is known, light emission by fluorescence results from the prior or simultaneous exposure of the fluorescent material to excitation light of suitable wavelength. However, not all fluorescent materials fluoresce or emit light in response to excitation light of the same wavelength. Consequently, the wavelength of the particular excitation light must be selected so that it will excite the particular fluorescent material involved.
Because most molecular imaging systems seek to detect fluorescence from a wide range of fluorescent materials, most such imaging systems are provided with excitation light sources that can be operated to illuminate the fluorescent material with excitation light of the appropriate wavelength. Unfortunately, however, most excitation light sources tend to be expensive and/or difficult to implement in use, and systems are constantly being sought that improve on existing systems.